


Where Love Blooms

by Leni



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen, Season 6B
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:16:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Based on 6x07.It was the helpless sapling in his flower shop that made him fret.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [judymulder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/judymulder/gifts).



> @judymulder wanted fic about [Moe caring for the Rumbelle sapling](http://judymulder.tumblr.com/post/159138597116/i-was-just-thinking-about-the-whole-sapling). Here you go!

Maurice was concerned.

If asked, he would insist he was worried over Belle and how her impulsive choices were finally catching up with her, but the truth was that his daughter had been following her own path for years already and any attempt to help her was useless.

To his sorrow, he'd had to give up when Belle at last walked away from her husband and still didn't come home. Belle was a grown woman. He had to believe that if she had survived this long, despite the Dark One's attention and being the target of his many enemies, then she could take care of herself.

It was the helpless sapling in his flower shop that made him fret.

Maurice didn't know the name of it, and had assumed it was a species unique to this world until he noticed that it didn't behave like other plants did. It was a moody thing, sometimes green and sprouting new leaves, growing half an inch and contently basking in the sunlight; other times it dried to the point where Maurice despaired for it... just to cling to life at the last.

In spite of its unnatural behavior, Maurice had grown fond of it. If he looked through his memories of the cursed years, he could see himself as Moe French, watering and talking to the little thing - the latter being something he was not in the habit of doing, despite the profession the curse had imposed in him.

For some reason, being close to it had always made him feel better.

One of the first things he had done after the curse had broken was to take it to the back of his shop, so none of his clients would be tempted to buy it.

A part of him realized that his attachment meant the little guy must have a drop of magic to it, but instinct told him that it wasn't harmful. He had decided that it must be the main ingredient for a healing spell, or perhaps it just carried a fairy's blessing for a happy home. For years, he had been happy to take care of it, as drawn to it as a horse to fresh pasture.

In the last months, he had worried as it grew dry again, without a single turn for the better. Green had turned into a sickly yellow, leaves dropping at an alarming rate until only a thin twig remained, pale and brown with dark spots at the tips of the tiny branches.

Maurice had tried his best, devoting time to it despite news that Belle had disappeared from Storybrooke, and even after her husband came demanding that she woke up to the nightmare her marriage had become. It had seemed a hopeless task, to return his little buddy to full health. In the last weeks it looked worse than Moe had ever seen it, more a dead stick than the vibrant plant it had been at its best.

Though he couldn’t bring himself to uproot it and give it the mercy of a quick death, Moe was already in mourning for it.

Hearing over the grapevine that his grandson had been kidnapped - by the Dark One's mother, of course - and now had returned to kill the Savior had not improved his mood.

It wasn't until he returned to his favorite spot in the back of his shop, subconsciously seeking the warmth the sapling had radiated for so long, that Maurice saw something that made him smile.

"Hello again, little one," he whispered, admiring the new green leaf that had spouted in the last hours. "Are you sticking with me, then?"

There was no answer, of course, but Moe decided he would hope for the best.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, together again next to the wishing well that had seen so much of their story, nothing but the truth coming from their lips, two lovers started mending what had been broken.

There were no certainties, not when so much lay in ruins around them.

But there was hope. Maybe even the beginnings of a renewed trust.

It was a start.

 

The End  
02/04/17

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love. Please leave a comment!  
> :)


End file.
